Gravel Wants to Revive Arcade Off-Road Racing

Gravel embraces arcade-style thrills over serious simulation.

By
Luke Reilly

Gravel is an interesting experiment for Italian developer Milestone, an experienced racing outfit whose games usually tend to trend towards the more serious end of the spectrum. The studio is primarily known for its two-wheeled work but Milestone is also responsible for a fistful of official WRC games released between 2010 and 2013, plus 2016’s Sébastien Loeb Rally Evo. Gravel is a significant departure from all of that.

Gravel is an arcade-style, multi-discipline racer; a pick-up-and-play racing game that sheds official motorsport licensing in favour of wrapping proceedings up in an over-the-top, televised racing show that takes its contestants all over the world.

As such, Gravel’s single-player mode straddles a bunch of different styles of racing, from checkpoint-based cross country blasts to tight, multi-lap, stadium-style events stuffed into cramped arenas. Races largely take place on fantasy tracks in a variety of real-world locations, from open-cut mines in the Australian outback to isolated Polynesian beaches, but a handful of licensed tracks have also been included, like Portugal’s Montalegre rallycross circuit.

But while the guarana-fueled Gravel contest itself is pure invention, the cars are the real deal. Gravel will arrive with over 50 genuine off-road vehicles, ranging from classic and modern rally cars, hulking American trophy trucks, Dakar-style SUVs and pick-ups, and more. Porsche is in with the Paris-Dakar winning rally-spec 959, which is the first time I’ve seen this car in a racing game since EA’s cult off-roader Shox way back in 2002. Toyota is in, too – as is Volkswagen (worth a mention considering the cooperation of each isn’t necessarily a given thesedays).

I played a previous build of Gravel late last year in an expo environment and came away indifferent; the handling didn’t seem to offer much and it’s hard to appraise sound design in such loud spaces. My more recent session with the game was definitely more positive. Gravel is a racer that embraces arcade-style speed and cornering but toggling off the driving assists that were locked in the previous build brought a bit more weight back into the handling. It’s a very accessible handling model but the cars at least feel like they’re interacting with the tracks rather than floating across them. It’s not difficult to keep your car pointed in the right direction but there’s a rewind function if you find yourself in a pickle.

Worth noting is Milestone’s audio work with Gravel, which has seriously improved since its stint with the WRC license. Engine notes are far, far more authentically reproduced all through the rev range and Gravel sounds significantly more realistic than Milestone’s previous four-wheeled fare.

Gravel was originally due to arrive last year but it was shifted to an early 2018 release instead, taking it out of the path of the shotgun spray of racing games released in late 2017. The bump to 2018 does place it nearer to the likes of The Crew 2 and Codemasters’ upcoming Onrush (which both seem closer in spirit to the likes of Gravel than last holiday season’s more po-faced stream of simulators). However, both those games are admittedly still several months away.

Gravel cribs from existing heavy-hitters like the Dirt series and the Forza Horizon series (as well as past favourites like 2007's criminally-underrated SEGA Rally Revo) but it’s a confident-looking package overall. Can it keep pace within this generation’s resurgent racing genre? We’ll get to see how it stacks up against the pack when it’s released at the end of the month.

Luke is Games Editor at IGN's Sydney office and will talk about racing games all day if you let him. You can find him on Twitter every few days @MrLukeReilly.